Market Square Arena was an indoor arena in Indianapolis. Completed in 1974, at a cost of $23 million, it seated 16,530 for basketball and 15,993 for ice hockey. Seating capacity for concerts and other events was adjusted by the use of large curtains which sealed off the upper rows.

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In the late 1960s, the city of Indianapolis studied several market areas of the city for future development and revitalization. Students from the fourth-year design studio class at Ball State University College of Architecture and Planning met with the City of Indianapolis to review and select 20–26 projects for consideration. Students Joseph Mynhier and Terry Pastorino selected downtown Indianapolis as their market and designed what would become Market Square Arena. The design envisioned by Mynhier and Pastorino was later selected and used as a promotional tool by the City of Indianapolis for construction of the stadium. The city selected four architectural firms to complete the arena design with two representatives from each of the four companies. Terry Pastorino, who had worked for Kennedy, Brown & Trueblood, Inc., during the summer of 1970 on the project, later joined the firm working on the arena.

The original student design included a four-story office building covering two city blocks. The Market Square Arena as constructed consisted of a unique space frame design spanning Market Street. The playing floor was elevated over Market Street by a parking garage on each side of Market Street. Market Street terminated at Market Square Arena to the east and to the west by the capitol. The final design eventually took up one city block spanning Market Street.

Market Square Arena's original center-hung scoreboard was an American Sign and Indicator scoreboard similar to those which would be installed at Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum and Joe Louis Arena. Its replacement, a center-hung White Way Sign scoreboard with a color matrix screen on each side (the AS&I scoreboard had monochrome matrix screens), was installed in time for the 1985 NBA All-Star Game and remained at the arena for the rest of its life, where it would later be complimented by front-projection video screens on each end of the arena (complete with RCA projectors).

The Pacers moved to the new Conseco Fieldhouse for the 1999–2000 NBA season, and Market Square Arena was demolished on July 8, 2001, in a multimillion-dollar implosion.[3] It only took 12 seconds to demolish the arena completely.

The site of the former arena was a parking lot for over a decade. The parking lot held a memorial to Elvis Presley, who played his final concert at MSA on June 26, 1977. The memorial was designed and built by Alan Clough.

In January 2017, Cummins opened their Global Distribution Headquarters on the southern half of the site.[5] A 28-story apartment building named 360 Market Square and containing a 40,000-square-foot (3,700 m2) Whole Foods Market store opened in March 2018, with the Elvis memorial placed on the sidewalk adjacent to the building.[6]

The first Pacers basketball game held in the arena was a preseason game against the Milwaukee Bucks; attendance was 16,929. The first regular-season ABA game in the arena was held on October 18, 1974, against the San Antonio Spurs; the Pacers lost in double overtime, 129–121 in front of 7,473 fans. The first Pacers victory in Market Square Arena came on October 23 with a 122–107 win over the Spirits of St. Louis. The 1974–75 season ended for the Pacers with the ABA Finals played in Market Square Arena and Freedom Hall against their archrivals, the Kentucky Colonels. The Colonels defeated the Pacers in that championship series, winning the ABA title in five games (4 wins to 1). The 1975–76 Pacers won their final home ABA game in Market Square Arena with a 109–95 victory against the Colonels. (Kentucky won the next game by one point to win the series and advance, ending the Pacers' ABA tenure.) The Pacers played in Market Square Arena after they joined the NBA. Michael Jordan's return to the Chicago Bulls after his first retirement took place at Market Square Arena in a loss to the Pacers on March 19, 1995.[7] The final Pacers game played in Market Square Arena was a pre-season exhibition game against the Utah Jazz on October 23, 1999.

Market Square Arena was the primary concert venue for virtually all national and international musical acts visiting Indiana until its demolition in 2001. While many concerts moved to the Deer Creek Music Center amphitheatre during summer months after that venue opened in 1989, Market Square remained the primary concert venue for large acts visiting the city of Indianapolis. Market Square hosted acts from Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra to Eric Clapton, Kenny Rogers, Deep Purple, Cheap Trick, KISS, and several Black Expo performances.